This invention relates to an improved machine for wrapping and grouping products.
In particular, the invention relates to a machine for wrapping individual products of substantially parallelepiped and/or flat shape (sweets, tablets ect.), and then to collect said products into groups of a determined number of units, and to overwrap them.
The groups formed by a machine of the aforesaid type constitute those packages commonly known by the name of sticks.
In normal packages, the component products of the sticks are disposed side-by-side with their major faces in contact, or in other words are disposed in a mutally flat arrangement.
Recently, sticks have been introduced on to the market in which the products are disposed side-by-side edgewise with their contacting edges in a plane normal to the longitudinal dimension of the groups.
A wrapping machine of the present applicant able to produce sticks of the described type is known, comprising a first wrapping wheel provided for wrapping the individual products in accordance with the so-called "pointed end" wrapping manner.
This type of wrapping is obtained by enclosing each product in a tubular sheath, the ends of which are folded triangularly (the socalled "pointed ends") and are then folded down on to one of the two major faces of said products.
In the said machine, the individual wrapped products are the extracted from the wrapping wheel and inserted one next to the other into the compartments of a conveying wheel.
A group comprising a number of products equal to the number required for one stick is formed in this manner in each of said compartments. Said groups are extracted from the conveying wheel and, after placing a sheet of wrapping material between them, are inserted into the compartments of a second wrapping wheel, the purpose of which is to form the sticks. In the second wrapping wheel, each of the component products of one group has its pointed ends facing outwards from the compartments.
This arrangement give rise to certain drawbacks.
In this respect, the said pointed ends, because of the elasticity of the wrapping material, tend to separate from the faces on to which they were previously folded down, with the result that they hinder the folding operations carried out on the outer sheet in the second wrapping wheel. Furthermore, the longitudinal edges of the outer sheet are superposed on the group of products on top of said pointed ends, which prevent perfect adhesion of the outer wrapping to the products, and can thus cause these latter to lose their hermetic seal.